Emmie’s 11th Birthday {flashback post}

The other day I shared a post about Emmie’s small and understated 12th birthday party, and today I am back with her 11th birthday (I am so behind on posts….) Emmie decided that she wanted to have a circus theme for her party, and we tried really hard to thread the theme throughout within the bounds of what we could get here in Korea!

I was able to find a vintage circus poster image online, (I know I got it from the National Archives for free, but can’t find the link.) and then in photoshop I changed all of the wording to go with Emmie’s name. I had it printed onto fabric, at the print shop on base, so it was only about $20 for a pretty fun touch.

The party was at the base indoor pool, which was a fun venue, albeit difficult to decorate!

We were able to take food in, so we decorated the table space as our main decor opportunity.

I punched a million tissue paper circles out of colored tissue paper, stuffed balloons with them, and then had them blown up. I was actually pretty happy they stayed floating the whole party, since it was HOT in the pool area 🙂 I had the balloons tied with baker’s twine to continue our color theme.

I was able to order some popcorn bags off of the internet, and we filled them all with homemade popcorn that was made with coconut oil, cinnamon, and sugar. I made custom labels for the water bottles too, since we were swimming, and I thought everyone would need to drink a lot. We gave away swim goggles and diving rings as the favors, and we used them as table decorations too 🙂

I was able to get party masks on clearance from Michael’s before we moved to Korea, (yes, I moved party supplies…I have a weird preparedness compulsion.) We put the masks in pots with glow sticks (which are fun in a pool) and they were all held up with fish tank rocks.

The cupcakes were fun to make; Emmie had guests that need to eat gluten and dairy free, so we made all of the food gluten and dairy free, including the cupcakes. The frosting was done by filling the pastry bag half way with white frosting, and halfway with red and they sort of naturally swirled on their own. I made the little dog picks out of card stock and a punch. (along with the top glitter topper, which is made a lot like my paper Christmas ornaments)

I just used a boxed gluten free yellow cake mix for the cupcakes; so to make it special, I split the mix up into a few bowls, and then added a little color to each bowl. Next I dropped a little into each wrapper, and then swirled the batter before baking, to get a marbled look.

The kids all seemed to have a really good time, and Emmie was so excited. We had small pancakes with jam, and whipping cream (and gluten free pancakes with jam and coconut milk, whipped up like cream) and hot dogs (with gluten free hot dogs too) etc. Oh, and deviled eggs, Emmie loves deviled eggs 🙂

Isaac was obsessed with the masks 🙂

I loved that none of the mess was at my house, and that the pool had huge garbage cans, disposable things could all be tucked away into!

A big hit at the party was our underwater camera; Paul took pictures of all the kids, and we sent copies of the pictures along with the thank you notes.

If you are wondering about Emmie’s swimsuit, she designed it herself. I showed her what fabric options I had in swimsuit fabric, and she came up with several designs for me.

Based on the fabric quantities I had, we chose this particular design,

and here is my interpretation of her design. I made the stars with my embroidery machine, and LOTS of stabilizer.

She’s pretty much the sweetest, and most grateful child, so it was so much fun to make her party meet her expectations!

Here’s another of my creeper kid….

Emmie always takes forever to open gifts, because she carefully reads every card, before she will even think about opening anything 🙂

I love how reflective she is on the giver more than the gift. The swim cap was just a simple gold one made from left over fabric, she hates swimming without one because her hair is so long, and just gets too knotty without one.

So that’s it, Emmie’s 11th birthday party! Hooray for finally sharing it (even if it is a year late 🙂 ) I loved putting it together for her, and was grateful for all the help Paul gave me!

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3 comments for “Emmie’s 11th Birthday {flashback post}”

This looks absolutely fantastic!! The scoring system for Emmie’s swimsuit designs is beyond adorable 🙂 You definitely deserve some kind of Awesome Parents award for the effort you put in xxxKatie recently posted…Mockatoo